My Five Favorite Books Of All Time (As Of Today)

Yesterday was National Book Lover’s Day. On Instagram and Twitter, people shared TONS of books they love. I added many more titles to my TBR list on Amazon. This all inspired me to share my five favorite books of all time (as of today, because the list is constantly changing).

My Five Favorite Books Of All Time (As Of Today)

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
I first found out about Wally Lamb about five years ago and quickly devoured all of his books. At the time I started with his most recent, We Are Water, and then tackled I Know This Much Is True. I Know This Much Is True is by far (in my opinion) his best. It starts off with a bang and I found myself quickly drawn into this saga. It’s a long, sprawling novel that explores family history, mental illness, and its impact on the two main characters, who are twins. It’s touching and sad and I find myself coming back to it pretty consistently. If you haven’t read Wally Lamb, I highly recommend his work.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Ken Follett is the king of suspense; Pillars of the Earth is his first stab at writing historical fiction. Pillars of the Earth is my favorite Follett book (and he has written a handful of amazing books). It takes place a long, long time ago (try the 12th century) and centers around the building of a Gothic cathedral. There are three main characters and a large cast of supporting characters, who I very easily envisioned living and working in the town of Kingsbridge. Pillars of the Earth reads sometimes like a soap opera, spanning over 40 years or so, and kept me up late at night, unable to stop reading. I sped through this the first time and quickly found myself reading the sequel, as well many of Follett’s other books. This is another long one, but amazing.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This book touched me. It has so many facets; mystery, love, friendship, issues of identity, dystopia… Never Let Me Go focuses on three friends who grew up together, and is told by one of the friends who is now grown looking back on her time in school. Ishiguro was a complete artist in how he crafted this book; the entire time I felt like I might know what was going on, but he never explicitly told me (until the end). I loved that I was constantly questioning myself and what I was reading as I worked to piece together the story that was being told. I’ve read this book multiple times and find that I get something new out of it each time. It’s a beautiful and tragic story about the lives we lead and the relationships we cultivate and how we sometimes just can’t control our circumstances.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’ve always been drawn to The Great Gatsby. It’s an epic, tragic love story, set in time that I find so alluring that keeps drawing me in. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be Gatsby and Daisy; even though neither are great people, their love story and the impact it has on Nick, is irresistible to me.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
People seem to love this book or hate it. I’m in the love category (obvs). The book focuses on an aging author who hires a young woman to tell her true story, which seems much stranger than fiction. This is a story that intertwines family and mystery and a ghost (!!) that kept my guessing until the very end. It’s not high literature, but it is such a well-written book with an ending that I did not see coming. Loved it!